That night, Emma couldn’t take Aleta’s face off her mind. How the girl’s eyes looked empty scared Emma. Later, when alone with her grandma, she inquired the old woman about it. All that grandma said was how Aleta was a nice girl, and that Emma didn’t need to be afraid of her.

“I know that.” Emma thought while throwing herself on the bed. “I’m just worried.”

The long walk made her exhausted. It was starting to rain outside and the calm sound of water running on the roof was relaxing. Her eyes became heavy and slowly closed without her realizing.

RIIIING

She woke up with the phone ringing. Looking at her cell phone, she realized it was 11 PM. The ring sounded through all the room but it came from the telephone instead of her cell phone. She had no choice but to pick it up. Only her grandma or Aleta knew how to call her room.

She put the receiver on her ear and said: “Hello”.

Silence.

When she put the handset on the base, it started to ring again. She put the receiver on her ear again, but this time just listened. For several seconds, no voice or sound came out of it, which was weird, as it should at least get some environment sounds if it was a proper call from another room.

After some seconds, a faint voice came from it. Emma didn’t recognize its owner.

“Bud.” a weak female voice said; then it started to repeat the same word, again and again, intermittent. “Bud. Bud. Bud…”

Emma put the handset on the base again startled. It immediately started ringing again. She didn’t pick it up.

She knew that device couldn’t be reached from an outside source. Her grandma and Aleta were the only ones who knew how to contact that specific room, as far as she knew. Maybe someone else could get that information, but she had no basis to believe that was the case.

Her grandma wasn’t the kind to play pranks and she didn’t think Aleta would do it either. Still, she couldn’t think about anyone else who could contact her like that. She got away from her room and walk to Aleta’s room. She knocked on the door.

Silence.

“Aleta!” she called, knocking again. But no one gave an answer.

Emma got scared. She knew Aleta wouldn’t be out at that time. Maybe she was downstairs again. But Emma could only think of the worst possibility. She put her hand on the knob and deciding to force the door open. Surprisingly, it opened easy.

Aleta was sitting in front of her desk and moving her hands in front of her. Emma approached her and realized she was making a drawing on a piece of paper. A beautiful sketch of a woman with long hair on her underwears.

“Wow, that’s beautiful,” Emma said without thinking.

“Wha…!”

Aleta turned around fast, almost falling from her chair. She stared at confusion at her open door.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just,” Emma started to explain, moving her hands agitated. “The door was open and,” Emma gave two steps back. “I didn’t know you could draw.”

Aleta took pulled the paper close to her as if hiding it.

“They’re not that good, so…” she said, avoiding looking at Emma.

“Are you kidding? It’s beautiful. Do you have more?” Emma said, walking to the desk. She saw a group of papers with drawings on them on it. “Can I?”

Aleta nodded. Emma took them in turn. They were all long-haired women. Sometimes they were nude or on their underwears.

“They’re really beautiful,” Emma said, looking drawing by drawing. While she was looking at them, Aleta jumped from her chair and took all the drawings from Emma’s hand.

“I,” she paused, blushing.” I am a little embarrassed by them.”

“Because some are nudes?” Emma said, giving a smile. “Don’t worry. That’s art, right? Well, show me them again sometime if you feel more comfortable. You’re talented.”

Aleta put the papers on the desk, avoiding facing Emma. Emma seemed to finally remember something.

“Oh, but, that’s right. That’s not why I came here,” she surveyed the room with a serious face and her eyes fixed on the telephone on Aleta’s room. “Say, were you drawing all this time?”

“Y-Yeah.”

Emma scrutinized the room, again. The telephone was on the other side, beside the bed. It was too far away from Aleta’s current position.

“Someone called my room by phone. I guess it wasn’t you, right?”

Aleta stared at Emma and to the phone in turn. When her eyes fixed on Emma again, Emma had this weird impression that Aleta’s eyes weren’t fixed on her. Maybe on something else.

“The first time they didn’t say anything,” Emma said, ignoring the chill she felt by Aleta’s stray look. “Then a voice started saying ‘bud’ over and over again. You were drawing here the whole time, right?”

Aleta didn’t say anything. Her expression looked troubled. She fiddled with her skirt while avoiding looking straight at Emma.

“So, you see...”

“You,” Aleta interjected before Emma could say anything. “You can go back to sleep now. I promise you, it won’t happen again,” again, Aleta’s eyes seemed to stray behind Emma. “I promise you…”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m sorry Emma,” Aleta stood up and threw a stare at her phone. “I can’t explain, but trust me. Please!”

Emma hesitated. She looked at the troubled face Aleta made and gave a nod. Saying good night, she exited the room. She waited in front of the door for some seconds. A sound like a mumbling could be heard coming from inside but Emma couldn’t distinguish what it was saying.

She gave up and went back to her room.

***

Emma woke up the next day feeling something hurting her face. After walking to the small bathroom that was part of her room, she looked at the mirror. Turning her face, there was a mark on her cheek. The red mark resembling a circle. She went back to her bed and searched where she used to rest her head. She found something hard and shiny. Emma reached for it and held a ring in her hand.

She looked inside, but there was nothing engraved in it. She knew for sure that ring wasn’t there before she went sleeping and her door was locked during the whole night. She felt a chill on her spine considering that someone went inside her room while she was sleeping.

Emma decided not to tell anyone about that. After her talk with Aleta the other night, she felt like bringing another weird happening would make things worse, or worry her more. She wanted to know what was going on before doing anything. She needed concrete proofs. Putting the ring inside her bag, she went outside for her breakfast.

She met Aleta by the stairs. The girl looked at her and gave a nod, greeting her.

“Did you, huh, sleep well?” Aleta asked.

“Yeah,” Emma said. She fought against her wish to talk about the ring.

They went down for breakfast and talked to each other as always. When Emma went back to her room, she saw the half of something under her door. She picked it up. It was an envelope.

“Wait!” Aleta said while reaching for the envelope, but Emma opened it. Inside there was just a name and a line.

Emma.

I think I'm in love with you.

Emma showed the letter to Aleta. Aleta’s face was pale already, but suddenly it looked even paler.

“That's it!” Emma said and turned back to the stairs.

***

“So what you're saying is...” her grandma was talking while looking at the letter above her desk.

Misses Stephens was sitting behind the desk and her granddaughter was standing up in front of her. Aleta was closer to the door, just watching in silence.

“Someone calling my phone, things appearing on my room. I'm sure there's someone stalking me. Maybe some pervert. I don’t know,” Emma said.

“I see. I have exactly three young men staying in this inn right now, but I don't believe any of them would…”

“So what? You’re going to say I’m lying?!” Emma shouted, slapping the desk. “I, I'm sorry,” she said, retreating her hand. “It’s scary.”

“I understand, dear.”

Emma knew the men who were staying there since she was a child. She also didn't believe they would do something like that. Still, she couldn't think about anything else.

Misses Stephens looked at Aleta, who just watched everything in silent with her pale face.

“Emma dear, do you mind if I speak to Aleta alone?”

Emma threw a confused look at Aleta. Aleta gave a nod, which made Emma walk outside the room as the girl got inside.

She waited in front of the closed door. She couldn’t understand what Aleta could do or know that she didn’t. Nervous, she tapped her feet on the ground while her grandmother and her new friend were inside. After long minutes, the door was opened. Aleta made a signal inviting Emma inside.

“Dear, would it be too much to ask you to put your trust on us?” Her grandma said.

“What is going on? What Aleta has to do with this?”

“There have been some circumstances on this inn lately, dear, and I, well, I don’t want to scare you. Aleta here also thinks it’s better if you let us take care of it. I can promise nothing like that will happen again for now.”

Emma looked at her grandma perplexed. She felt Aleta’s warm hand holding her arm. Aleta almost never touched her from her own accord, so Emma looked at her with curiosity. The girl had some glimpse of determination in her eyes.

“Please, Emma. I swear that I won’t let anything hurt you.”

It was impossible for Emma to distrust those eyes, so she nodded. Aleta gave out a sigh and Emma’s grandma smiled at them. Emma held Aleta’s hands and pulled the girl closer, making her gasp in surprise.

“Okay, but sleep in my room tonight! I’ll feel better if I’m not alone.”

“I...I…” Aleta said, nervously throwing a look at Misses Stephens. The old woman just nodded with a smile. “O-Okay.”

***

That night Emma decided to show Aleta the ring she had found. The other girl just looked at it without understanding.

“This was on my bed when I woke up this morning. I wanted to understand what’s going on before saying anything, but if you really know what’s up, maybe you should know about it.”

Aleta examined every part of the ring. It was definitely an engagement ring. Although it looked old.

“Weird is,” Emma said while sitting on her bed. “I know my mother lost a ring my father gave her in this very room. But that was more than twenty years ago.”

Aleta gave a weird look to the ring. She turned it back to Emma.

“Did you ask her about it?”

“I thought about calling her but I didn’t want to worry. I would have to tell about the other weird things, and she probably would come back right away. But still, I can’t stop thinking about it.”

“I don’t think it’s the same ring,” Aleta said, turning her eyes away. “It’s impossible, right? I cleaned this room every day, so…”

Emma stored the ring back in her bag again and looked at Aleta. She gave a smile.

“Well, you’re right. I’m overthinking it,” then she got serious. “But that would mean someone came inside and put it on my bed. And that’s scarier.”

Aleta was wearing same pink nightdress Emma saw before and her long and straight black hair was loose. Emma used to just put old clothes for sleep, so how appropriated Aleta looked impressed her. She realized she could see the girl’s black underwear through the nightdress and that made her blush.

Aleta would sleep on the floor, despite Emma’s attempts to offer her own bed.

“Still,” Emma said while smiling at Aleta. “This feels like a sleepover. I had some with friends when I was younger.”

“A sleepover, huh?” Aleta said, looking at Emma, who still had her cheeks slightly red. “I never had one.”

Giving how Aleta was ostracized by the boys on the city, and how she apparently went through that during her whole infancy, Emma felt like the girl was lonely since forever. She couldn’t know how she was treated by her own family, but the current situation implied it wasn’t any better.

“Well, we can have one now. We’re just sharing a room, but, let’s see. How about we talk a little before sleeping?”

Aleta nodded but stood in silence while sitting on the mattress on the floor. Emma smiled as Aleta looked eager at her.

“Huh, So, huh,” Emma said, scratching her head. Suddenly she jumped out of the bed, startling Aleta. “Oh, I know what we can do!”

Asking for Aleta’s help, she put her own mattress on the floor. Aleta looked at it and Emma saw a smile form on her face.

“I see. it’s like we’re sharing a bed.”

“Well, it’s the same as sharing a bed,” Emma said. “Are you okay with it?”

“I’m a little nervous, but, I think, yeah.”

While Emma was happy to see Aleta’s bright smile, knowing how that smile came to be because of her loneliness made her a little sad. Emma lied on the bed first, followed by Aleta, who turned her body to face her. Emma held Aleta’s hand, which made the girl’s body retract a little, but soon she relaxed. Her hand was soft and Emma threw a smile at her.

“I am your friend now so don’t worry,” Emma said.

“Friends,” Aleta said, looking at Emma for some time before smiling. “Yeah!”

***

During the middle of the night Emma opened her eyes. She thought about looking at the time on her cell phone. When she tried to move her arm, it didn’t obey. She tried to move any other part of her body, but none obeyed. Her whole body didn’t obey her. She was frozen and could only move her eyes.

She focused on Aleta’s face in front of her. Maybe she could make a signal to ask for help. Surprised, she realized Aleta’s eyes were looking straight at her. Emma tried to talk, but her mouth wouldn’t move either. At first, she was relieved that at least Aleta was awake. Still, the way the girl looked at her made her unsettled.

Aleta’s eyes looked empty, despite being open. She didn’t say anything, just staring straight into Emma’s eyes. It was the same as the other day when they came back from the city. Suddenly, Aleta’s body started to move, approaching Emma. She got so close that the forehead from both girls touched. Emma could feel Aleta’s breath close to her face, as she opened her mouth.

“Bud,” the word came cold from Aleta’s mouth.

Emma tried to scream or move but it was useless. She watched as Aleta stood up and sat over her body. She shivered as Aleta’s cold fingers traced her face; As Aleta’s fragile hands closed on her neck.

Aleta’s grip was getting stronger and stronger but Emma still couldn’t scream. It became so strong that Emma started to have difficulty in breathing. When breathing became impossible, Emma’s mind blanked out.